WEBVTT

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And now, the battle for Lady Gough.

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Across the restless wilderness of water that is Pacific in name only, the United States

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Navy orders Halsey's 3rd Fleet and Kincaid's 7th Fleet to the Philippines.

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Sailing over the Mindanao Deep and into Lady Gough, Allied soldiers and sailors come to

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answer the prayers of those who marched their way to death on Bataan two and a half years

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earlier.

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It is October 1944.

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The liberation of the Philippines will start with the island of Leyte.

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Seize the beaches, establish a base.

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Six simple words on which hangs the destiny of the Western Pacific.

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132,000 troops, 200,000 tons of material, 750 transports and landing craft.

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For the GIs, Lady Gough is all out war.

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For the Japanese, Lady Gough is the most tempting target ever offered.

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And the Japanese know it.

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They have long been waiting for the Allies to get out on a limb.

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They have long had a plan to cut off the limb.

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Down from the north, up from the south, in from the west, the Imperial Japanese Navy

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converges with three powerful forces to perform the surgery at Lady Gough.

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The entire remaining naval strength of Japan is mustered for one final supreme battle.

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Loss of the Philippines will tear the Japanese Empire in two, cutting off the home islands

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from the oil, the resources, the wealth of the Indies and Southeast Asia, fatally crippling

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Japan's ability to wage war.

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The Leyte landings must be destroyed if Japan is to survive.

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The naval high command confesses, we are about to fight a battle that will decide the fate

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of our empire.

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The mission of our naval forces is truly great.

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Steady attrition has undermined the once superb Imperial Japanese Navy.

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But what the sailors now lack, they supplant with courage, sired out of desperation.

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Identify these ships.

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United States battleship, Maryland Class.

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United States battleship, Oklahoma Class.

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The American submarines, Darter and Dace, are stationed west of the Philippines.

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Three days after the Allied landings at Lady Gough, they discover part of the converging

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Japanese Navy.

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They attack, sink two cruisers, and send the enemy's course and speed to Halsey and Kincaid.

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Darter is lost, but the Americans are alerted.

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Intelligence from the submarines is analyzed and plotted aboard Admiral Halsey's flagship.

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The Third Fleet prepares its opening move in what is to be the greatest naval battle

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in all history.

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Halsey orders out his search planes, orders them to pinpoint the Japanese.

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Halsey's scouts find the Japanese Central Force in the Sibuyan Sea, headed east toward

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San Bernardino Strait.

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The enemy plans to sail through the strait and then set a southerly course for Lady Gough.

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A southerly course for slaughter.

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From the flagship to all carriers, strike, repeat, strike.

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Frye has hit the island.

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The

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Japanese Navy can count on no help from its pilots and planes, all but destroyed in earlier

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battles.

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So anti-aircraft measures have been intensified in the hope the ships by themselves can beat

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off the Americans.

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The sailors prepare to throw up a wall of fire around their task force.

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Six slashing attacks concentrate on the 63,000 ton battleship Musashi.

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Hit after hit is scored.

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Twenty-one torpedoes find their mark.

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The giant Musashi becomes the first Japanese battleship sunk entirely by aircraft.

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Other ships are damaged.

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The Japanese Central Force pauses and turns back.

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It has been battered, mauled, wounded, but it has not been destroyed.

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In the meantime, the Japanese Southern Force, in battle array and with all boilers lighted

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off, rips into the Mindanao Sea toward Surigao Strait, leading directly to Leyte Gulf from

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the southeast.

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Battleships, cruisers, destroyers lunge through the narrow waters, hoping to force the strait

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open and join up with the Central Force in the twin annihilation of the United States

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Army and Navy.

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But the jaws of an American trap are open.

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The men of war, alerted to the Japanese approach, race to put a stopper in the bottleneck of

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Surigao Strait.

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Admiral Kincaid stops the bottleneck with PT boats, destroyers, cruisers, and battleships.

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American and Australian ships and sailors comprise a floating dam across the strait.

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Strong in firepower, strong in determination to hold.

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The admiral orders positions taken.

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PT boats, trained to attack anything afloat, with no defense but speed, skill, daring,

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patrol the southern end of Surigao Strait.

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On the fore of the battle line, these fragile sentinels prepare to draw the first blood.

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Behind the PT patrol is the destroyer picket line.

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Behind the destroyers are the cruisers.

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And behind the cruisers, the battleships.

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No hands are quiet, tense, waiting.

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The Japanese hurl themselves headlong through the dark, into the trap.

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Midnight, October 24th.

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Inside the Japanese force, detection gear picks up their enemy.

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Suddenly, brilliantly, searchlights dispel the night.

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The Battle of Surigao Strait is on.

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The PT sailors let go all torpedoes in their savage attack, throwing the enemy off balance.

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The PTs have done their job.

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Located the enemy, attacked the enemy, betrayed the enemy to the bigger boys.

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Now destroyers, cruisers, battleships, all in position, all in battle stations, take

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up the fight.

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The Japanese are in the trap, and the jaws close.

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Old battleships that arose from the mock and humiliation of Pearl Harbor.

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California, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, deliver salvo after salvo.

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With the Japanese under their guns, the old battleships take their vengeance at Surigao

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Strait.

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The debris of Japanese disaster litters mile after mile of Surigao Strait.

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More than 5,000 Japanese sailors are wounded, missing, dead.

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The survivors, fanatical to the last, refuse to be rescued.

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The Japanese Southern Force is destroyed.

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But there is no time for celebration.

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To the north, San Bernardino Strait, unguarded, open waterway leading to the approaches of

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Leyte Gulf.

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Through this passage, the Japanese Central Force of battleships, cruisers, destroyers,

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steams at 20 knots.

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This is the force that was turned back.

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But if it could turn once, it could turn again, and turn it has toward Leyte.

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The light American units, small escort carriers, destroyers, guard this approach to Leyte Gulf.

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The onrushing Japanese are first sighted by surprised, horrified search planes from the

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escort carriers.

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Should these 22 enemy ships break through, they will turn the Leyte landings into bloody

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shambles.

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Enemies go after the thin line of destroyers.

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Attack.

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Hit the cruisers.

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Block the battleships.

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The sailors sacrifice themselves for Leyte in the Battle of Samar.

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The Japanese force includes the largest warship ever built, the Yamato, mounting the biggest

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guns afloat.

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Open fire, orders the Japanese Admiral, letting the people defenders feel the full sting of

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the Imperial Navy.

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Barrage after barrage straddles the escort carriers, protected only by the intrepid destroyers.

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Destroyers lay screens of real and chemical smoke between the escort carriers and the

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enemy.

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One bore in to deliver a furious torpedo attack, one of the most frantic, desperate actions

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of war at sea.

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Every plane that can get off the escort carriers joins the unequal battle.

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Trained only for support of ground troops, the jeep pilots hit the Japanese with what

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they can, with all they have.

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The Japanese keep pounding away, smashing the reeling escorts, the dauntless destroyers.

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But the reckless American attack continues, scattering and confusing the Japanese.

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Suddenly, the Japanese make an incredible decision.

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With parting sorrows, they break off the fight.

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They turn back, this time for good.

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The American ships, Gambier Bay, St. Lowe, Johnston, Hull, Roberts, Sung, 2,800 casualties.

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Meanwhile, far to the north, off Cape Engano, the third Japanese force is discovered.

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A force that answers the question the Americans have been asking since the start of the Battle

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for Leyte Gulf.

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Where are the carriers?

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The Japanese northern force includes four carriers, as well as battleships, cruisers,

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destroyers.

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Steaming on a southerly course, the carriers are the final threat to Leyte Gulf.

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But the task of the northern force is suicidal.

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It is to act as decoy, to lure Halsey's third fleet away from Leyte Gulf, while the central

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and southern forces drive the Americans out of the Philippines.

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The Japanese are hopelessly outclassed, short on training, short of planes.

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We will be sunk, their admiral admits.

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That is our mission.

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Radio silence is deliberately broken to betray position.

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The dummy messages are intercepted by Halsey's radio men.

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The admiral is confronted with a tough problem.

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Should he stay at Leyte or sink the Japanese carriers?

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Regarding his mission to be offensive rather than defensive, he orders the third fleet

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north.

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The first strike, 55 torpedo planes, 60 fighters, 65 dive bombers.

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absolutely secret.

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♪

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♪

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♪

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The Japanese maneuver to receive the assault with mass,

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intense anti-aircraft fire.

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♪

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♪

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♪

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♪

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♪

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♪

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♪

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Japanese land-based bombers from Luzon.

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Halsey ships are the target.

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♪

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♪

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A few Japanese attackers break through,

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but a single bomber finds its single mark with a single bomb.

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♪

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The light carrier prints them.

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One hit is enough.

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Rescue efforts by her crew and first aid from the crews of Birmingham

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cannot prevent a fatal internal explosion.

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♪

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♪

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The Japanese decoy has worked,

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but it avails them nothing.

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All three of their forces are butchered,

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beaten, broken.

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In four days of far-flung fighting,

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the Japanese lose three battleships,

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one large carrier, three light carriers,

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six heavy cruisers, four light cruisers,

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nine destroyers,

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26 of their finest ships.

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Japan ceases to be a naval power.

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That dream is over.

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The once magnificent Imperial fleet is no more.

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It dies in the battle for Lady Goddard,

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and it dies in vain.

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♪

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♪

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Fleets are made by nations.

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Battles are won by men.

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But when battle is done,

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the young and brave sleep,

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heedless of their greatest victory at sea.

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♪

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♪